Happy Monday. Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann says that the tea party movement is the smart one and has proposed some brilliant ideas. "You see our movement at its core is an intellectual movement," she said. "We are based on the greatest ideas ever conceived in the mind of man. And I would put those magnificent ideas up against any other idea for freedom in the world." [

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-> Meanwhile, Mitt Romney is getting the band back together. The former 2012 presidential candidate is inviting campaign aides to ski in Utah later this month, though advisers caution its just for fun and not for strategizing about 2016. [

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Topping the news:

House Speaker Becky Lockhart has turned down the Senate offer of $26 million to fund her $200 million proposal to put more technology in the classroom. [

Trib

] Other questions about the budget sill remain. [

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UtahPolicy

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-> Any decision regarding Medicaid expansion in Utah may be months away. [

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-> The House committee investigating former AG John Swallow has recovered some 400 more emails that were supposedly lost and plans to make a report public Tuesday. [

"If you're too young to remember the Civil War, you may want to come up to the #utleg and watch the budget negotiations."

Happy Birthday:

To Tribune Editor and Publisher Terry Orme

Opinion section:

The executive director of the Utah Department of Health, David Patton, argues that Gov. Gary Herbert's proposal to help provide health care to low-income Utahns without expanding Medicaid is right for Utah. [

-> Frank Pignanelli and LaVarr Webb take a look at the impact of the compromise over Count My Vote. [

DNews

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-> Former Sen. Bob Bennett says the Count My Vote deal is good for democracy and that many candidates may choose to go around the caucus-convention system. [

DNews

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Weekend in review:

Committee meetings are almost over, but there is still plenty of floor time left for you to catch. Today's schedule: [

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-> A long list of ethics reforms are making their way through the Legislature, but placing a limit on campaign donations, which the federal government and most states have, is not one of them. [

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DNews

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-> Lawmakers killed two bills allowing Utah to set stricter clean air standards than those the EPA sets, but one may find a way back to life. [

Trib

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-> Around 37 percent of school buses in the state were built in 2001 or earlier which means they do not meet current EPA standards. A proposed bill would provide $20 million in grants to help schools buy new, cleaner buses. [

Trib

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-> The debate on a bill to increase penalties for cock fighting shows the conflict between animal rights and tradition as well as urban and rural life. [

Trib

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-> A Senate Committee killed a bill to regulate e-cigarettes and recommended a study. [

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DNews

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-> A proposal to provide public financing to help build a new convention center hotel in downtown Salt Lake City passed a Senate committee. [